Merry Christmas Donald

The big question ending 2015 and going into 2016 might be, “is Donald Trump clever enough to snatch the GOP nomination and become the outsider nominee”? Is Trump clever, observant, ruthless, or possibly asymmetric enough to win a primary contest for which he has no qualifications. Hmmm.

Trump has combined crowd appealing rhetoric where he has attacked one minority after another and in doing so connected with a fear or prejudice within the GOP electorate (and maybe wider than that). His comments have been dubbed “politically incorrect” by his opponents. This epitaph, his opponents are beginning to realize only delight Trump supporters even more.

It is particularly obvious in Jeb Bush’s personal attacks on the Donald. Bush’s comments are having no impact on Trump’s ratings and instead reinforcing the public’s perception that Jeb is a light weight in this contest. Hmmm.

Now Trump is welcoming his town meeting attendees with a warm “merry Christmas” and then wondering out loud why we don’t hear “Merry Christmas”. Most public spaces have moved to “happy holidays” which is more accommodating to other non-christian faiths. Trump has once again struck at a potential third rail without hurting himself. Hmmm.

Trump’s strategy remains high risk and it is still possible that he may step over the line and begin to turn his supporters against him. But if experience to date is any measure, it is going to take a pretty huge gaff to upset his apple cart.

At the beginning of the primary process, the GOP big wigs boasted about what a high quality field of candidates they had this time around. What Trump’s campaign tactics are showing is that the GOP field is cluttered with unready, unprepared, and/or unwanted candidates. As each candidate approaches Trump’s number one position, the glare of the public spotlight shows that candidate as less than Presidential timber.

The most amazing aspect of Trump’s surge is that the general GOP platform has not come into play yet. So, foreign policy, healthcare, path to citizenship (comprehensive immigration reform), tax breaks for the wealthy, and the laundry list of anti-women policies have not influenced primary voters. All this lies ahead in the general election. It shouldn’t surprise anyone should Trump water down or outrightly disavow any of these far right proposals in the general election.

So, it is a warm “Merry Christmas” to Donald Trump and thanks for an entertaining fall season. Democrats, particularly Hillary Clinton, should, in the privacy of their homes, break out the bubbly and welcome the holidays and the new year with a very optimistic outlook for next November. Come January, however, Hillary had better keep her eyes open because Donald may not be going away.